Site of former Beach Road police station up for sale

There might be an office or shop space standing in what used to be a police station on a 2 hectare site on Beach road soon.

The 99-year leasehold reserved list commercial site was put up for sale by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) recently and one of the conditions of the sale is that the former police station has to be conserved. It has come up for sale because the minimum bid of $1.138 million has been triggered by a developer-offer.

The conservation status of the former Beach road police station may be a plus rather than a setback despite the conservation and construction costs which may be considerable due to the underground linkway.The popularity of heritage sites and indie enclaves may mean this site can leverage on its heritage status to market a unique concept. With the current development of DUO in Bugis and South Beach, there is also hope that activity from the upcoming Kampong Bugis area will trickle into market opportunities at the Beach road site.

The Beach road site has a maximum permissible floor area of 950,592 sq ft and at least 70 per cent of it will be office space, with the rest being retail spaces. In the neighbouring South Beach development, rents stand at $9 psf while those at Marina Bay are at $9.48 psf. With these references, the winning bid is likely to be between $1,400 to $1,700 psf per plot ratio. An estimated 10 bids is expected for the site and tender closes on the 28th of September.